I almost wonder if there should be just another category called “recommended smart home devices” but, that being said, now that I have my new Ecobee thermostat and its air quality reports, I kind of want to get an air purifier that can work with it when the air quality is low. The first would probably be in my home office where I work. Personally, to me, it does not matter if it works off Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter or WiFi but local control would be a plus. I see information from two years ago but I have to think technology has advanced in this rapidly changing world.
So…what are you all using and what do you like and what do you dislike?
I have Xiaomi Mi Air purifier Pro; there is hacs plugin for it (where supported models are stated, too), and you can control it via HA. Perhaps only downside i see is that it has OLED display which after a couple of years shows signs of burn-in. Since majority or time, it shows “001” these numbers are clearly visible when showing other numbers. But, since i almost never look at display it’s a minor disadvantage, i guess. BTW…it’s possible to turn off this display…
oh, and, of course, regular periodic filter changes are necessary (but i guess that this is a must no matter which purifier you buy).
I use a Levoit Core 300s which has an official integration via cloud, but instead I took it apart and flashed it with esphome which gives it pretty good fully-local functionality (esp32/wifi). Being in the US, the Levoit was the only customizable option I could find, as the esphome and tasmota device listings only have flashable air purifiers from EU and Australia. The config I used works ok, but requires significant customization.
While there are no Z-Wave options I’m aware of, the IKEA purifier can connect via Zigbee (you can find lots of feedback if you search the forums for STARKVIND). There are also several HomeKit options, which are generally fully local, one of which uses Thread if you’re anti-WiFi. Matter is still in beta, but there is one Matter-over-WiFi air purifier out so far. Some of these have built-in air quality sensors, but some do not.
I’m still researching, but here is what I found so far:-
Levoit - Levoit Core 400S, LEVOIT LV-PUR131S, and Core 300S. Size for your room. (Smart) There is an official HA Integration - look for VeSync. Is is cloud polling. As stated above.
Coway/Airmega - highly rated and lots of models - [Coway AP-1512HH Mighty][Wi-FI version] or Coway Airmega 400S. Also only a HACS integration [Coway IOCare] - GitHub - sarahhenkens/home-assistant-iocare
I have a couple of the smaller Levoit units - Core300S-P and they work well with the integration and app. Just want to get off the cloud dependency.
Yes, it works quite well here, too. Only mod i made is rfid reader (under the filter, at the bottom of device), which i replaced with custom pcb which allows filter counter to be easily reset (just unplug from 230 and re-plug in). But that’s because i mainly use it for (visible) dust reduction, not so much for pm particles (i have a lot of dust since i have two dogs, carpets etc…). If your main reason is filtering pm particles then regular filter change is advisable.
I have 3 Philips airpurifiers which work fine through this HACS integration.
However, some people reported instability, but for me this is quite stable.
Just to update those looking at the levolt ones I had to re-add it to my vesync app just now and it would not work until I had set my DNS to 8.8.8.8 and got rid of my cloudflare primary of 1.1.1.1
The app kept failing with the message: please change your router DNS to 8.8.8.8
So keep this in mind when you are setting these ones up if you go with them. I may look at swapping to the Welov P200 Pro (hopefully we see more more options that are not cloud reliant) since it’s listed as a matter based Air Purifier as per the link provided above if/when this 300s chooses to die fully on me.
My network forbids access to any public DNS … guess I can make firewall and adguard allowances for it just the same way I had to for Amazon devices which want total and complete unfiltered access to the internet before they work
Yea I did not have this happen when I first got it, only after the recent app update and the TOS changes it seems.
edit: OK that vesync app is starting to get on the nerves… even with the DNS set to google dns its failing to connect… either they need to fix this or I am just dumping this app and this brand and replacing it soon as I have the money for one that is properly local only control.
I bought 3 units of the Core 200S-P on amazon, about 2 weeks ago and I can say they are useless with home assistant. The app “VeSync” on my iPhone would lose connection to the network for several hours a day leaving the device unable to be controlled trough the oficial app (VeSync) or Home Assistant integration, so I decided to contact support believing that was some sort of bug / issue that could be addressed with an update, unfortunately I discovered that the app is intentionally limiting the requests you can do per day and this is a very strict number and to make things even worse I believe this limit is per user and not devices (they all lose network and come back up together) and the fact that I have 3 units only aggravates the problem.
Here is the e-mail reply I got from them:
" Thank you for reaching out! I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing connection issues with your Air Purifier Core 200S-P units. I understand how frustrating this can be, and I’m here to help.
Request Rate Limiting: Due to company policy, we have implemented rate limiting on the app to prevent malicious requests. If the number of requests exceeds a certain limit, the app will temporarily become unusable until the next day.
Exiting the App: When you’re not actively using the app, I recommend fully exiting it (this means closing the app completely, not just logging out) to avoid unnecessary requests.
Home Screen Activity: Please avoid leaving the app open on the Home screen for extended periods. Staying on this screen causes the device list to send requests every 15 seconds, which can lead to connection issues. If you navigate away from the device list, these repeated requests won’t occur.
Third-Party Account Management: If you are using any scripts or logging into your VeSync account through third-party services, please log out of those accounts as well.
If you continue to have issues after trying these suggestions, please let me know, and we can explore further options. I want to ensure you’re satisfied with your purchase!
Best regards,"
Not only this, LEVOIT fails to clearly advertise its HEPA filter capability as you can see here. And claim on the Amazon website this air purifier works on rooms up to 916 Sq.Foot while I found the same unit selling at the Target store claiming to work on rooms up to 182 Sq.Foot.
I’m currently still using my 200s until it dies. I have been looking at this one for as stated once I have the funds since everything is currently going to bills and what not first:
it’s listed as matter compatible from one of the matter lists I looked up a while back but if there are others I would look into them as well come time.
We’ve had a set of Mila for ~3y here. 2 of the 4 have working fans, the other two don’t move air at all anymore. 2 of them (not the same two) can’t connect to wifi anymore even after factory reset. Tons of back and forth with support, they eventually just refunded us two of them. At some point, 2 were sent back and replacements are a part of this mixed-broken group. Can’t say if the quality has gotten better in recent history, but they were a big fail for us. When they were working, they would ramp up to full-jet-engine cleaning mode for no apparent reason sometimes. (Nothing in their sensor readings indicating a trigger).
The HACS integration does work, and on a positive note, the Mila are a pile of a great sensors.
Downside, the API auth seems to timeout every few weeks, and it looks like the keys expire roughly on that frequency (i’m too annoyed with them now to dig into it any further). I was toying with the idea of just using the one that doesn’t move air (but can connect to wifi) as a large-but-nice air quality sensor, but now they’re all probably on their way to becoming potted plant holders.
